Technological, physicochemical and sensory characteristics of a Brazilian semi-hard goat cheese (coalho) with added probiotic lactic acid bacteria

Over the past few years, the use of probiotics, which are capable of exerting beneficial effects on the composition of intestinal microbiota, has increased. Cheeses have been suggested as a better carrier of probiotic bacteria than other fermented milk products. The effect of added cultures of probiotic lactic acid bacteria on the quality of a Brazilian goat semi-hard cheese (coalho) was assessed during 21 days of storage at 10 degrees C as follows: C1, Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis and L. lactis subsp. Cremoris (standard cheese); C2, Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA-5); C3, Lactobacillus paracasei (Lactobacillus casei-01); C4, BBifidobacterium lactis (BB-12); and C5, L. acidophilus, L. paracasei and B. lactis. Differences in some physico-chemical, experimental texture and proteolysis parameters were found among the assessed cheeses. All of them presented high luminosity (L-star) with predominance of the yellow component (b(star)). Numbers of lactic acid bacteria in the cheeses were greater than 10(7) cfu g(-1) during storage. Cheeses with the added probiotic strains alone and in co-culture were better accepted than cheeses without the probiotic strains. It is suggested that goat coalho cheese could be a potential carrier of probiotic lactic acid bacteria.